Mostly battle reports of games of Warhammer 40k, and some hobby and tactics stuff as well.

Nov 19, 2012

3000p: Iron Hands vs Black Legion

In the far future of the grim darkness that is the 41:st millennium there is Only War... Meaning that we need to step it up a bit. This will be my largest game yet, and I just finished packing my army. That in itself was quite a job!

With that in mind I made a quite elite army to make it somewhat easier to pack at least. So we'll see how that goes. It turned out to be a very Nurgly army, since that is most often the most expensive mark... And one of the best for sure as well so!

This list is very light on Troops for this size of game for me to be entirely comfortable. But my model collection is my limitation! Ideally I would've liked at least two more Troops. But instead I suppose I have to try and make my stuff as killy as possible!

Knowing there's a big possibility of Land Raider, 2 Leman Russes and a couple of Dreads as well as Razorbacks I did take quite a lot of anti-tank. Chosen with Meltas. As they can no longer Outflank I took a couple of extra bodies to compensate though. They will also be helpful against Terminators, which I believe there'll be at least 10 of!

Of course my own Terminators had to come too, bringing Lightning Claws to shred troops. I'll also support them with a Sorcerer in Terminator armour. Trying out the Lore of Nurgle (but mostly Biomancy I believe).

Having four Obliterators available they too had to come of course. Splitting them up in two units, and I think I will deploy both units as I think I'll need their fire power from the start instead of the being lazy in reserve.

Then I was just filling stuff out with some armour of my own. I can't make a full mech army so it has to be half-and-half sadly. This does hurt me I think, and I could've left the tanks at home for some Berzerkers in the Elite slot instead... but then there's that transporting problem again so... I like my Preds anyway, we'll see what they'll manage to accomplish. The Decimator gets another chance as well, mainly because it's a huge points sink.

I also threw my Warpsmith in there... but at the time of writing this I haven't really figured out where he'll go... maybe I'll make a mini-Deathstar with the Plaguemarines and Chaos Lord? Oh well, I'll figure that one out eventually...

Not quite having enough of a collection to make a solid list at this level, making it very spread out. Most of the models I have are competing for the Elite slots these days after all... But it'll be a fun game I think! Let the mayhem begin!

We rolled for mission and got the Crusade with 4 objectives and Hammer and Anvil deployment. Thankfully, as with this amount of stuff it'd be hard to fit stuff in a normal deployment zone... Warlord traits, he got VP's for killing characters in challenges and I got D3 Infiltrators (after a re-roll since my opponent thought it silly to get cause fear when facing Space Marines). We rolled for psychic powers, he rolled two on Biomancy and got Warpspeed and chose Smite for second. I rolled one on Nurgle (and chose Nurgle's Rot) and two for Biomancy and got Endurance and Life Leech. My Warlord got Cosmic Fate for his Gift of Mutation (re-roll failed armour saves). As there was only one ruin in his deployment zone (the large cathedral) I had to shatter that one with my Warpsmith, and he chose to enforce the other one close to him with his Master of the Forge.

I won the roll off to go first and decided to take first turn. I then also won the roll off to decide who deployed infiltrators first since, we both had them. I chose to go first there as well, even though it'd been a nice opportunity to counter-deploy some stuff - but the board was so packed at this time meaning there was very limited space to infiltrate on so by going first I could deny him any infiltration pretty much.

I chose to infiltrate Chosen (so I've still not played them without infiltrate, heh) with the Warpsmith, two Obliterators and the Terminators with the Sorcerer. He left a unit of Terminators with the Warlord-Librarian in reserve for Deep Striking, as well as the Bikes and the Drop Pod with meltas.

Deployment. Objectives are in the two buildings to the bottom and on the balcony in the building at the top-right side and between the two buildings at the top-left side.

Deployment from the other angle, notice the infiltrating Chosen, Obliterators and Terminators. Also the Scouts who were forced to deploy inside their own deployment zone despite being Infiltrators thanks to me being everywhere.

No Night Fighting for turn 1, and he didn't steal initiative.

Turn 1 - Black Legion
So I basically moved forward with everything except for Cultists and Las-predator. Both Marine units moved through the woods, the red one was a normal forest and the white one a hungry jungle that ate one Marine. First Blood to the trees! I also revealed the objectives, and of course the one the Cultists were holding was sabotaged. The one on the balcony above was a Skyfire-nexus which was really nice! The Terminators also revealed the objective on their side as the one which lets you re-roll ones when shooting.

Everything that had something that could hurt the Land Raider and was in range shot at it, but only managed to take 3 hull points off it and shake it a bit. The Decimator then shot his Storm Lasers at the closest Marines he could see and killed one. All Marines and Plague Marines just ran closer while the Cultists shuffled away a bit from the scary objective while still holding it.

Turn 1 - Iron Hands

The objective he was holding turned out to half the charge distance. The Drop Pod arrived with five Marines with a Melta and a Combi-melta and it scattered off so it landed in front of my Auto-Pred instead of to the side of it. The Scouts were moving forwards towards the enforced building they had planned to deploy in but were denied from to try and re-capture it. The Land Raider moved 6" forward, but he forgot to get the Terminators out... at least they were protected for another turn!

The meltas from the Dropped Marines both hit the Auto-Pred and both got penetrating hits, he rolled two threes turning into fives, meaning two immobilised results and thus it took an additional HP loss and was Wrecked. The Vindicator then shoots it's scary large pieplate on my Plague Marines, but it scattered back and landed right on top of his Marines that had just got out of the Drop Pod (just like I told him it would!), but thanks to cover it only killed the three regular Marines (leaving the Sergeant and the melta alive) and one Plague Marine.

One of the Razorbacks then took a pot-shot at the Decimator and promptly exploded it. So that's 250 points that managed to kill one marine before it was gone. Thanks!

The Plasma Cannon managed to kill one Terminator from it's maximum range and the Land Raider used it's Machine Spirit and some Rapid Fire Bolters took both a Obliterator (and his buddy failed his morale and fled) as well as two more Terminators. The Chosen who had got into the enforced building were really enjoying their 3+ cover save however and only lost a Bolter-guy to the missiles and snipers coming their way.

Turn 2 - Black Legion
The Heldrake arrived and started swooping between the buildings, flying at it's maximum speed. The Obliterator actually managed to rally in front of the Land Raider. He just turned around and shot his twin-linked melta at it and wrecked it, forcing the Terminators to come out.

The Chosen moved further into the building and closer to the Vindicator, the difficult terrain made it so that only two of them got in melta-range though, with the rest having to do long range melta. It was enough though, and they blew the Vindicator up, and the explosion killed one scout and four Marines... both the Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun and a Sergeant died... that was some of the most unlucky saving throws I've ever seen!

The unlucky saving continued when my Happy Camper Marines sitting in the forest shot at the Terminators and got two Bolter hits and one Plasma hit, and two Terminators died despite Storm Shields! Obliterators took out another Terminator with Plasma Cannons. My Predator also managed to blow the Lascannon off the far away Razorback.

Then I decided to try and get an easy Boon-roll with my Lord, so I split him off from the Plague Marines, planning to shoot and charge the two remaining Marines from the Drop Pod. I actually killed the Sergeant with my Bolt Pistol, saving me the risk of charging an overwatching melta. And for the Boon I rolled... Spawn. D'oh! The Plague Marines, angry (or happy?) at seeing their Warlord turned into a Spawn shot at the remaining Marine. Both Plasmas overheated. And both died despite armour and Feel no Pain... At least the Bolters took the Marine down (only failing one out of 7 saves).

The Maulerfiend and the Bikers had moved up on their flank and was picking their targets. The Maulerfiend is extremely fast, so it reached the Razorback in the ruins with ease and blew it up. The Bikers first shot their squad of Marines, killing one with a Melta and then charged in, killing another one - which was enough to break them and they got away as well. The remaining Terminators also flamed and charged a separate squad of Tacticals, wiping them out.

The surviving Obliterator decided to try and charge the Assault Terminators that had popped out of the Land Raider. Turned out to be a bad idea, despite causing 3 wounds (all saved by Storm Shields). The Heldrake then flamed a squad and killed all four it could reach, leaving a lone missile-launcher.

Turn 2 - Iron Hands

The Storm Talon came in, but both the Terminators and the Bikes stayed out. The Storm Talon showed up right in front of the Heldrake and unloaded everything it had at it. But turns out it's good being a Daemon. The lone missile spared by the Heldrake last turn, and the fleeing missile-launcher as well as some Devastators shot at the Maulerfiend and managed to cause one glance and one stunned (which was ignored by Daemonic Possession).

The Master of the Forge also ran towards the Razorback that lost it's gun, but couldn't quite reach it to try and repair it.

In the fight over the fortified building he managed to kill three Chosen with flamers and snipers. And more Rapid Fire Bolters killed my Terminator Champion (which I chose to let die since I wanted to keep my Heavy Flamer as Assault Terminators were incoming). By the time the Assault Terminators got all the way to my Terminators only the Sergeant was left alive, and thanks to Champion of Chaos I had to challenge and he couldn't refuse. All saves made on both sides though and my Power Fist just got front row seats.

Turn 3 - Black Legion
The Heldrake used Vector Strike at the Storm Talon and got four hits! Only one glance and one penetrating though, and the Storm Talon jinked and saved the pen. However, by this time my Marines had finally managed to climb up to the balcony and grab the Skyfire nexus, so with their plasmas the managed another glance on the Storm Talon so it crashed and burned... right on top of my Bikes! Killing my Champion which I failed to save.

My Predator, seeing the Master of the Forge trying to fix the Razorback he shot last turn decided to finish business and blew the Razorback up. The Obliterators were inspired and managed to take two hullpoints and immobilise the remaining Razorback as well.

Over in the fortified building again, the Warpsmith decided to return the BBQ-favour and flamed them back, and with the meltas the squad died. The Warpsmith melta was the one to take the Sergeant and for a Boon I rolled... a Spawn. Right. Oh, and my Warlord-Spawn ran and hid in the forest in the far back by the way, to try and deny and Slay the Warlord points.

The Maulerfiend ran out of the ruins and charged one of the Dreads... and died to Overwatch. The Bikers avenged him by killing the other Dread with their meltas.

The Sorcerer still managed to tie the combat with the Terminator Sergeant.

Turn 3 - Iron Hands

Terminators arrive surrounded and outnumbered by enemies but never... actually they were out-gunned too.

Both the Bikers and Terminators finally came in. The Terminators in a somewhat desperate move used their Deep Strike in the middle of my side of the board and scattered closer to the Cultists and then ran to spread out. The Bikes moved up and melta:ed some Chosen and with the help of lots of missiles and Rapid Fire and Snipers they killed off all but 3 Chosen. 3+ cover really saved them. Thanks Master of the Forge!

One of the remaining Obliterators also took a Wound to Bolters, and one Plague Marine died as well to Autocannon fire from the Dread. The Master of the Forge reached the remaining Razorback and actually managed to repair one hullpoint.

In the challenge between the Terminator Sergeant and the Sorcerer the Sergeant managed to cause one wound on the Sorcerer, but thanks to the Mark of Nurgle he wasn't insta-killed and stayed for another round.

Turn 4 - Black Legion
Cultists, Marines in the forest, Predator and Obliterators all shot at the Terminators. I rolled pretty average, but with some bad saving all that remained after that was the Librarian with 1 wound left. I had also moved the Cultists closer to get a charge in, planning to swarm the Terminators in lots of bodies, and then went through with my plan even as there was only the Librarian left... forgetting the Champion of Chaos rule, which forced my Cultist Champion to challenge... Crap. The Librarian went first and missed all attacks. What! I survived? Thanks to the 5 re-rolls I then also managed to cause 4 wounds. 2+ save should stop it though? No, he failed one and dies! And for a Boon I roll... Daemon Prince! I swear the Dice Gods are real and they have a twisted sense of humour...

The Chosen do their best to shoot the Scouts off the objective and kills one. The Warpsmith-spawn moved up around them and charged them from behind to force them to pile in away from the objective. Killed one scout even.

The Bikers charged the Razorback and with their Hammer of Wrath took off one hullpoint after failing to shoot it with two meltas.

The Sorcerer then actually managed to win his challenge, and with Endurance (which I by the way cast in every round but haven't mentioned) that gave him It Will Not Die I even regenerated my lost wound. And the Boon I got was also +1W, all though I realise now I did that in the wrong order, so he had no extra wound but in the end it didn't matter.

Plague Marines took some pot-shots and killed a few Marines as well and the Heldrake killed 6 Marines (the squad that used to contain the Plasma Cannon and the one next to it) after failing to Vector Strike the Dread.

Turn 4 - Iron Hands

The Bikers wiped out the remaining three Chosen with their meltas and the help of the Master of the Forge, and he scrambled his last remaining Troops forwards trying to at least contest the objective the Plague Marines were holding. My Bikers then got another chance at the Razorback with their grenades and took the last Hullpoint off.

Tie combat between the Spawn and Scouts. And then the Cultist objective actually blew up and killed three Cultists.

Turn 5 - Black Legion
The Marines on the Skyfire Nexus killed two of the Marines who had come closer last round through a building window which made them fail their morale. The Plague Marines charged the lone remaining Marine in front of them, killed him barely and the consolidated back on the Objective. The Heldrake torched the Bikers and my Bikers killed the Master of the Forge.

The Spawn then killed all but one Scout, and the Obliterators blew up the Drop Pod. The Terminator with a Power Fist charged the Dread and killed it.

At this point he conceded and there was a Chaos victory (3 Objectives, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord) 11 - 1 (First Blood).

Lessons Learnt

First turn isn't always that helpful, especially with this deployment. My first turn really didn't have much to it, as most stuff were out of range, despite infiltrate and what not! I think that if I get the choice, next time I play this deployment I will go second and let my opponent come to me instead.

Other than that I'm really pleased with how both my Terminators and Chosen were tying up their sides of the board respectively and drawing a lot of attention away from my Troops. I mean, in the end I still had all four of my Troops, and I was really worried it wouldn't be enough beforehand! Just too bad I didn't really get the chance to use my Sorcerer that much, but next time! Endurance was great however.

Other than that it was a really fun game with a lot of random stuff happening! Too bad my opponent couldn't make any armour saves though, because thanks to that it was somewhat of a massacre towards the end as I had pretty much half my army still left on the board compared to his few scattered Marines. And also some real bad luck with reserves coming in late. I think that the Librarian should have been sitting inside the Land Raider though, just to make sure he doesn't get stuck in reserve like that.

But wow, how different it is to play at this scale. I almost start to understand how it must be to play Orks or Imperial Guard... with all the stuff to do every turn!